Modern portable devices have evolved into multimedia players supporting composite functions, such as capture of images or moving images, playback of music files or video files, gaming, broadcast reception, wireless Internet access, and the like. Hardware and software features are continuously developed to enhance portability and convenience of portable devices while satisfying user needs.
Such a portable device may be used for remote control of home appliances. To remotely control home appliances, the portable device may receive state information on the home appliances from a server and sends a command for controlling states of the home appliances to the server.
In a typical remote control scheme for home appliances, to control the state of a particular home appliance, the user has to enter a control command to the portable device. Hence, when the portable device is unable to communicate with the server or an error occurs in the remote control environment, the user is unable to remotely control the home appliance.
In the case of a failure of communication between the portable device and the server after a heating device, such as a heater or a gas range is turned on, it may be unable to remotely turn off the heating device in a suitable time.
Therefore, a need exists for a remote control method and an apparatus for home appliances wherein a remote controller performs situation recognition using sensors and automatically controls home appliances without a control message from a portable device when communication with the portable device is not possible.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.